Hello all! Welcome to my first review of 2017! What better way could we celebrate bringing in the new year on the blog other than dive into the last installment of The Young Elites trilogy, The Midnight Star by Marie Lu.
Characters:✭✭✭✭
Cover:✭✭✭✭✭
Chapter length: ✭✭✭✭
Pacing: ✭✭✭✭
Cliche count: ✭✭✭✭✭
Overall rating:✭✭✭.5
Synopsis
There was once a time when darkness shrouded the world, and the darkness had a queen. Adelina Amouteru is done suffering. She’s turned her back on those who have betrayed her and achieved the ultimate revenge: victory. Her reign as the White Wolf has been a triumphant one, but with each conquest, her cruelty only grows. The darkness within her has begun to spiral out of control, threatening to destroy all she’s gained. When a new danger appears, Adelina’s forced to revisit old wounds, putting not only herself at risk, but every Elite. In order to preserve her empire, Adelina and her Roses must join the Daggers on a perilous quest—though this uneasy alliance may prove to be the real danger.
Favorite Quote
“After a lifetime of darkness, I want to leave something behind that is made of light.”
Page 297
Characters: Holy hell, did everyone make a come back in my book. As I mentioned in my review of The Rose Society, I couldn’t connect with Sergio or Maeve or the rest of the Daggers that much anymore. But in The Midnight Star? Oh, that took a 360* turn my friends.
Cover: I love how the cover of the book’s meaning isn’t revealed until the end. Throughout the entire book, I was questioning if it was just a matter of having an interesting title and background. NOPE. (Hint if you haven’t read yet: Read. The. Short. Stories. At the top of every chapter.) Read them.
Chapter length/pacing: Remember in my review for The Young Elites where I mentioned mad anxiety is coming your way? Haha, here it is again! I swear Lu does not fail at keeping her readers on edge. Especially scenes that involved Teren. Because you never know what happens with that guy. UGH. Again, refer to spoilers.
Cliche count: none!
Spoiler-free review section
I feel like I say this in every review, but where do I start… I guess with the brutal truth. I wanted to love this book so badly like I loved its predecessors. I reallllyyy did. But if I were to sit here and say I am 100% satisfied with the book, I’d be lying. It didn’t even begin to feel worthy of 3.5 stars until the last few chapters. And I know, it sounds crazy. But hear me out.
When I sat down to map out this review, I found that the things I disliked about the book outweighed the things I liked about it. Much to my disappointment. I was scrolling through various reviews on Goodreads and I’m happy to say I wasn’t the only one that wasn’t a tad disappointed with this ending.
The first half of the book is very boring. I was expecting it to be this awesome build-up to the “perilous quest” our characters were supposed to venture on, but it wasn’t. To be honest, it felt like a series of small errors until Raffaele decides “Okay! Time to fix what we broke people!” And it sucked. I wanted to be more enthralled with the problems, but I just didn’t connect. For the first 50% of the book, I felt incredibly numb to almost everything.
The other 50%, however, is the “perilous quest.” and that’s where things get interesting.
If you’ve journeyed with Adelina and the Young Elites through the first two books, I recommend finishing the series. Don’t let my review discourage you, as you could feel completely different about it. I love that all the characters come together on this journey, despite past events. I love the journey in itself. I still love Rafaele and Magiano and Adelina and Violetta. But everything else? *sigh*
Spoiler review section!
Enzo: When Enzo died, I actually felt very relieved. It lifted a weight off my shoulders, knowing that he wouldn’t lead to the demise of the characters I still cared about, AKA Adelina or Raffaele. Although, it does pain me to know that Raffaele, someone who loved him, also had to end him.
So, I didn’t actually care about Enzo dying, I just cared that Raffaele is the one that killed him. But for good reason, and Enzo himself was relieved as well.
“Let me go.”
Now, for Violetta, I didn’t not care about her death because I hated her or something, I didn’t care because I knew it was coming. I was already prepared, and when it happened. I was just kinda like…”welp.”
And obviously, you’d know if you’re reading this, I ended up not having to care about her death because in the end, Adelina trades her life for Violetta’s anyway.
I’m struggling with how I feel about this as well. One part of me thinks it was morally right because Violetta had her whole life to live, but the other part of me is like????? All of this for NOTHING Adelina??? I mean, not completely for nothing, since she does sorta still “live”, just only at night.
I like the concept of each one of them having a god/goddess. It’s unique, different, and it actually made me happy to finally meet Moritas? It’s ironic because she’s the goddess of death but on the other hand, I’m like, woah, here you finally are in the flesh. Well, bone…
Also, can we talk about Adelina’s last words?
“I take a slow breath. Someday, when I am nothing but dust and wind, what tale will they tell about me? Another slow breath. Another. A final exhale.”
Oh my gosh, my heart. In the end, I’m really conflicted about how things turned out. I like that the Elites no longer have powers and return to how they were before the blood fever, but it feels empty, y’know? Like Raffaele said. I also feel really bad for Magiano. I wanted you and Adelina to come out of this together just as much as you did.
How’d you feel about The Midnight Star? Were you left with any questions? Suggestions for an alternate ending? Leave it in the comments!
Cierra's Cynosure 